Phillip Island to Melbourne - 671km

*DAY 8 to 13*
Wonthaggi is definately a town with mining history, and at the Wonthaggi State Coal Mine a lovely old man who volunteers his time told us in depth of how the town came about. He only requested a gold coin donation and he had us there for 1 1/2 hours. Drove along Cape Paterson, a drive that takes you along the coast which is where they are still finding dinosaur bone remains. As you can imagine Bernie was in his element at Moto GP the next day. Haven't been that cold in a long long time. But worth it of course to see the race and Casey Stoner win. We walked the entire track, bigger than you expect. We happened to be on every corner where the crashes happened. Luck on our part but not for the riders! We decided to go back on Phillip Island the next day and thousands and thousands of bikes were leaving. I have never seen so many bikes in my life! We visited the Vietnam War Museum which was interesting to say the least. The Chocolate Factory was such a rip off! A waste of time and money. Later that day we drove thru Melbourne City and thanks to my navigational skills avoided all the toll roads. Stayed just south of Ballarat at Lake Colac. As you arrive there a millions and millions of insects that look very similar to mosquitos. Told Bernie to get out to see if they attacked him before I got out of the car. They didn't even bother us the whole night. Just alot of them buzzing around you but not on you. We then made our way up to Creswick, north of Ballarat. We went bush for 2 days and it has to be the best free camping spot we have stayed in to date. Bernie did a bit of fossicking for gold and on his first pan, found 1 fleck of gold. He has "gold fever" now. The floods that came thru Victoria have re-surfaced some of the gold so its quite a popular past time. Drove to Melbourne, hoping to find a caravan park close to the airport for my early flight in the morning. Typically - we're staying right on the flight path! Such a different outlook and background noise compared to our last few nights of camping. Weather has been quite surprisely nice alot of time, and even singlet weather. Coldest would have to have been Phillip Island and one day at Wonthaggi. Mornings are cold but then warms up nicely. Two days of rain so far, I think we've been lucky. Until next time.....in Tasmania.